I’ve been having a hard time keeping up with the Albanian-involved terrorism plots this year. I was about to do a follow-up to the July-announced North Carolina plot that included a Kosovo Albanian and a Bosnian when, late in September, I got word of a bomb plot involving a Macedonia Albanian living in New York. Everyone has of course read all about that, but it needs to be chronicled here as well, since there will be follow-ups. So, belatedly, I bring you Betim Kaziu:

A New York man was indicted Thursday for allegedly conspiring to commit murder overseas and helping terrorists, the U.S. Justice Department said.

The indictment alleges Betim Kaziu, a U.S. citizen, traveled abroad to try to join several terrorist groups, including al-Shabbab, a Somali group with ties to al-Qaida that is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, the department said in a release. He also allegedly tried to travel to Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans to fight against U.S. armed forces.

He was arrested in Kosovo by Kosovar law enforcement authorities in late August. […]

Now, before we go getting all excited about the fact that Kosovo “authorities” helped out with this and therefore doesn’t that show that we are indeed building something like a functioning Muslim-majority state that really, really, really will be on our side, let’s shatter that illusion. First of all, this particular Albanian terrorist obviously didn’t enjoy the kind of “protection” from the Kosovo leadership that the Islamists and double-dealing-with-the-jihadis Albanian drug traffickers do. He was just another lone Albanian acting out of passion for his cause, without any high-level connections. Next, consider cosmetics. It’s very important for Kosovo to prove itself at the moment while it’s still trying to gain more international recognitions, and like its ally Croatia trying to get into the EU, it’s perfectly capable of putting on a show. Finally, just look at Saudi Arabia: It’s always arresting terrorists. Does it mean anything when Saudi Arabia helps nab al Qaeda guys?

…Authorities said the man, Betim Kaziu, 21, a former building porter who was born and raised in Brooklyn…made repeated attempts [in Egypt] to buy weapons and tried to join a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda. In addition, authorities said, Mr. Kaziu made efforts to travel to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.

In a three-page indictment, unsealed Thursday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, authorities said Mr. Kaziu eventually made it to Kosovo, where he was arrested by Kosovar law enforcement authorities in late August and returned to the United States.

He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
…
The allegations shocked Mr. Kaziu’s family in Brooklyn. “This is totally unlike him,” said a sister, Sihana Kaziu, who added that he was never violent and had a “big heart.” Ms. Kaziu said her brother, a Muslim, did not grow up particularly religious.

One of four siblings, he played football in high school before dropping out, she said. He later got his high school equivalency diploma and around age 18 became interested in the Koran and said he wanted to dedicate his life to God, a prospect that pleased his parents, she said. He told his family that he was going to Egypt to study Arabic, and kept in touch regularly by e-mail.

In August, Mr. Kaziu notified his family to say he was off to Kosovo and Macedonia, the family’s ancestral home, to visit friends and relatives, Ms. Kaziu said. They did not hear from him again for weeks, then learned that he had been arrested with three other men in Kosovo. A foreign news account said the men were arrested on suspicion that they planned to commit terrorist acts, and it said weapons, including two AK-47s and five hand grenades, were found in searches of locations associated with the case.

Ms. Kaziu said her brother told them that he was visiting a friend when the house was raided and that the weapons belonged to his friend’s father. She also said her brother had expressed confidence that he would be acquitted.

This Albanian terror plot came out on the heels of a little-publicized arrest made in Kosovo, and for some reason involving the FBI, in late August:

Kosovo police are questioning four suspects, including a U.S. citizen, about their alleged links with terrorism, they said Friday.

The four were arrested for illegal possession of weapons and endangerment, but “charges could be expanded” to include terrorism, pending an investigation, police spokesman Arber Beka said.

He says police found two Kalashnikov rifles and five hand grenades during the arrests early Friday in the western town of Prizren. Beka declined to comment on allegations in the local media that the suspects are linked to Islamist radicals.

Local media said the raid was executed in cooperation with the FBI, but Beka said police would not confirm or deny that.
…
Police also seized a laptop computer believed to contain information about the suspects’ plans.

Now check out the sequence of the remaining paragraphs:

The arrests come a month after Kosovo police said they shared information with the FBI investigation that led to the arrest of a Kosovar in the United States, accused of plotting with six Americans to carry out terror attacks in other countries.

Earlier this year three ethnic Albanian brothers from the former Yugoslavia were each sentenced to life terms without parole for plotting to kill military personnel at New Jersey’s Fort Dix. The men were arrested in May 2007.

Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians are staunch supporters of the U.S. and see America as the driving force behind Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia last year.

Just to keep you on track in case your mind starts wandering to any obvious conclusions.

So now we can get to the follow-up on the summer’s North Carolina plot, which came the same day that news of this Brooklyn Albanian’s arrest did. What the two have in common, aside from being Albanian-Americans, is that they were targeting U.S. servicemen:

The two were among seven suspects arrested in August for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and for conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure people overseas.

A new indictment unveiled on Thursday charged Daniel Patrick Boyd, the group’s alleged ringleader, and Hysen Sherifi “with conspiring to murder U.S. military personnel” in connection with the planned assault on the Marine Corps base, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Raleigh said in a statement.

It offered no details, except to say that Boyd had undertaken reconnaissance of Quantico and obtained maps of the base in order to plan the attack.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Boyd also possessed armor piercing ammunition, and had stated that it was “to attack the Americans.”

(Of course, the armor-piercing ammunition would be superfluous in Kosovo, where our troops patrolwithoutarmor.)

“These additional charges hammer home the grim reality that today’s home-grown terrorists are not limiting their violent plans to locations overseas, but instead are willing to set their sights on American citizens and American targets, right here at home,” U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding said.

All seven suspects in the North Carolina case were denied bail after a hearing in Raleigh last month at which prosecutors played FBI recordings as evidence that they had discussed waging “jihad” as part of a conspiracy to conduct attacks in foreign nations.
…
Boyd is a U.S. citizen and Sherifi is a native of Kosovo and a legal permanent resident of the United States.

But don’t fret! Here to reassure you is the AP’s resident Albanian, to underscore that for this Albanian-included plot disruption as well, the Kosovo “government” helped out:

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - Kosovo police said Thursday they cooperated with the FBI investigation that led to the arrest of a Kosovar in the United States who has been accused of plotting with six Americans to carry out terror attacks in other countries.

See? Kosovo, Albanians, Albania, Macedonian-Albanians — they’re not that bad. This relationship is doable. But I’m still waiting for discovery of all the plots by our Serbian “enemies.”

Police also said Hysen Sherifi, 24, a native of Kosovo and a legal U.S. resident, had no criminal record in Kosovo and was not considered to have been a security threat here.

Sherifi was the only non-U.S. citizen of the people who were arrested on Monday in the U.S. state of North Carolina…An eighth suspect is believed to be in Pakistan.
…
“For the moment there are no indications or information that there could be any threat of a potential terrorist attack in our country,” Kosovo police spokesman Besim Hoti said of Sherifi and the other suspects being held in North Carolina.

That’s because you’re not a country, Dingbat. Of course, in what is “your” country — Serbia — 95% of Kosovo is that threat.

He also said in an interview that police had cooperated with the FBI by giving it information on Sherifi, adding that “our notes had registered no criminal background for this person.”

That’s because he’s probably only ever killed, robbed, or raped Serbs, which doesn’t result in a criminal record.

…Sherifi’s grandfather and his neighbors said they could not believe the 24 year old could have been plotting terrorism in the United States, a country that is loved in Kosovo for leading the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia that ended its rule in Kosovo.

Where have we heard that before? Oh yes, just a few paragraphs up — from the family of the NY Albanian’s plot. And from relatives of the Fort Dix Albanian plotters. (”They shouldn’t dare throw a stone at America” — after all, America killed and robbed the Serbs for us!)

“I do not believe he is one of them,” Baki Sherifi, the suspect’s grandfather, told AP Television News. “This is something unbelievable. We live in this neighborhood for centuries, and the whole family never expected such news. We are all shocked. What more can I say?,” the tearful 70 year old said outside his mosque in Gnjilane, 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Pristina, Kosovo’s capital.

Hmm, an old Albanian — at a mosque. Why would a 70-year-old “non-religious-Balkan-Muslims” Albanian be busying himself with a mosque? And please note also where in Kosovo this suspect hails from: Gnjilane. A post introducing readers to the significance of Gnjilane to come…

Like many other Kosovars, Hysen Sherifi, his parents and his two sisters had moved to the United States 10 years ago during the Kosovo war. Last year, he was married, and his wife is expecting a baby.

Just like the Ft. Dix Albanians. Thank you, Hillary and Bill! Any more of this, and we’ll have to start importing Serbian “war criminals” to take care of it.

Police said Hysen, who was visiting Kosovo a year ago, was expected to return early next month and join his relatives after they got back from a vacation in neighboring Albania.

“Everybody in the neighborhood is shocked. We feel sorry for the family. We cannot believe that has happened,” said Hakim Rasimi, who lives near Baki Sherifi in Gnjilane.

He lives in Gnjilane, and he can’t believe it. Recall the even greater indignation of the Ft. Dix plotters’ relatives.

Other family members, who have been following the case closely on television and the Internet, declined to be interviewed until charges have been filed in the case in North Carolina.

To help Albanians and American politicians cope with this spate of negative press for Albanians, some Serbs were arrested the same week. Also known as: “PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN! HERE — LOOK AT THIS INSTEAD”:

A spokeswoman for the mission, EULEX, said the suspects had been arrested on the orders of [a] EULEX prosecutor near the town of Gnjilane in eastern Kosovo, but gave no further details.

An estimated 8,000 to 12,000 [sic] civilians were killed in Kosovo in 1998-99, the great majority Albanians, as Serb forces tried to suppress a separatist guerrilla insurgency, and were then forced to leave Kosovo by a NATO bombing campaign.

Shortly after the bombing began, more than 800,000 Albanians fled or were driven from their homes.

Be still, my heart. Let’s re-read that: Those 800,000 Albanians fled AFTER the bombing campaign began? Well how about that! This is the first time I’m seeing something that’s at least trying to be more accurate than the usual “Serbs expelled 800,000 Albanians and so we bombed”-type thing. And in a report on alleged Serbian war criminals, no less! So actual chronology of events is starting to sneak its way into press reports, 10 years later. It was shocking enough in 2007 when they started doing as the report does above — writing that Serbs were putting down an insurgency, as opposed to just trying to get rid of Albanians.

Meanwhile, notice that the EULEX judge issuing the order for the arrest of the Serbs is in Gnjilane, meaning that the word ‘Gnjilane’ has finally hit American news reports, by virtue of the North Carolina Albanian being from Gnjilane — and by virtue of this:

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - Seventeen former Kosovo rebels went on trial Wednesday before the Serbian war crimes court, charged with murder, rape and torture of Serb civilians in 1999.

Nine of the men were arrested in December in a predominantly Albanian-populated region of Serbia bordering Kosovo. Eight of the suspects are at large and were accused in absentia.

The indictment accuses the men of the kidnapping of 153 Serbs and the deaths of at least 80 of them in the eastern Kosovo town of Gnjilane following Kosovo’s war for independence.

They are charged with “murder, rape, detention, mutilation, torture and looting,” the indictment said. The charges carry up to 20 years in jail.

Bruno Vekaric, the spokesman for Serbia’s war crimes prosecution, said the trial brings with it a “high risk” of retaliation by Albanians against the Serbs and other witnesses who still live in the region.

The war in Kosovo - then a province of Serbia - began with an ethnic Albanian separatist rebellion and ended after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign that forced Serbia’s army and police to pull out of Kosovo.

After the war ended, the suspects allegedly launched retaliatory attacks against the Serb minority in Kosovo, where 90 percent of the population is ethnic Albanian.

I think the reporter meant to write “…the suspects launched “alleged retaliatory” attacks.” Otherwise it sounds like he has no idea whether Albanians went on a killing spree or not — when even NATO personnel and U.S. politicians were openly reporting on the out-of-control “revenge-killing” that was going on. What is “alleged” is that these were revenge or “retaliatory” attacks. Since you can’t exactly “retaliate” against something you started. Especially by drowning an old lady. Most likely, the word “allegedly” is being used because any time the Serbs relate confirmed information, or engage in prosecutions against non-Serbs, the charges can only be a Serbian ‘claim.’ As opposed to Albanian- or Bosnian-disseminated ‘fact.’

The piece ends with the following:

…In a related development, Serbian police said they found a large weapons cache in the tense south of the country near the border with Macedonia.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, who heads the police, said Wednesday the weapons included two rocket launchers, anti-tank mines, 16 grenades, a machine gun and ammunition.

Dacic said the weapons were discovered in a pit on state property about 300 meters (yards) from the Macedonian border.

Serbia’s south, which borders Macedonia and Kosovo, was the scene of an ethnic Albanian rebellion in 2000-2001. The unrest ended in a peace plan but tensions have simmered since.

Stay tuned to find out more about the nature of those “tensions.” Meanwhile, this “Serbian south” they keep mentioning refers to either the Sandzak region or the Presevo Valley area. During the rebellion in the latter in 2000-2001, you naturally heard nothing about a rebellion taking place. Because the last thing our government and media needed was for Americans to start asking questions about what it was that we’d just helped Albanians do in Kosovo, if they immediately moved on to Presevo Valley. For the same reason, Americans heard almost as little about the Macedonia insurrection of 2001 that Albanians moved on to like clockwork.

The Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija had an obvious and important point to make about the arrest of the four Serbs suspected of war crimes:

Empirical practice also reveals that not a single crime against the Serbs or other non-Albanians has been processed and resolved since 1999. We still do not know who murdered the Stolic family, the children in Goraždevac, fourteen harvesters in Staro Gacko, who planted a bomb on the Podujevo-Priština bus, and many other crimes.

The logical conclusion after all that is that the justice in Kosovo and Metohija is selective and guided only by one’s ethnicity.

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*A name like Llazar Semini requires explanation, since the first name is recognizably Serbian, but given that extra Albanian “L”. Nebojsa Malic explains:

A number of today’s Albanians (or “Kosovars” or whatever) are actually Albanized Serbs, also known as “Arnautash”. These were people pressured into not only accepting Islam, but identifying themselves as Albanians, during the latter stages of Ottoman rule (1700s+). As you can imagine, this produced some rather schizophrenic results, as these people became more militant than actual Albanians, yet retained some elements of Serbian culture and tradition (e.g. epic poetry and gusle, patron saints, etc.). Of course, those elements were twisted and corrupted, to the point where pro-Albanian activist Anna DiLellio writes with a straight face that epic poetry of these “Albanians” is “proof” that it was in fact Albanians who fought the Turks in Kosovo!

This fellow is without a doubt an Arnautash, with a name like that.

So just as the principality of Pec is Albanized to “Peja,” and Kosovo is Albanized to “Kosova,” so was Lazar Albanized to “Llazar.”